{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T12:10:09Z","timestamp":1781179809752,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":94,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]],"date-time":"2022-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665273600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004052","name":"KAUST and baseline research funds to F.B.","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BAS11090-01-01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BAS11090-01-01"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004052","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004052","name":"KAUST and baseline research funds to F.B.","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2021AU050"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021AU050"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004052","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100016034","name":"Groningen University Fund with an Outstanding Master Student grant","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BAS11090-01-01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BAS11090-01-01"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100016034","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100016034","name":"Groningen University Fund with an Outstanding Master Student grant","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2021AU050"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021AU050"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100016034","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Very shallow coral reefs (&lt;5 m deep) are naturally exposed to strong sea surface temperature variations, UV radiation and other stressors exacerbated by climate change, raising great concern over their future. As such, accurate and ecologically informative coral reef maps are fundamental for their management and conservation. Since traditional mapping and monitoring methods fall short in very shallow habitats, shallow reefs are increasingly mapped with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). UAV imagery is commonly processed with Structure-from-Motion (SfM) to create orthomosaics and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) spanning several hundred metres. Techniques to convert these SfM products into ecologically relevant habitat maps are still relatively underdeveloped. Here, we demonstrate that incorporating geomorphometric variables (derived from the DEM) in addition to spectral information (derived from the orthomosaic) can greatly enhance the accuracy of automatic habitat classification. Therefore, we mapped three very shallow reef areas off KAUST on the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast with an RTK-ready UAV. Imagery was processed with SfM and classified through object-based image analysis (OBIA). Within our OBIA workflow, we observed overall accuracy increases of up to 11% when training a Random Forest classifier on both spectral and geomorphometric variables as opposed to traditional methods that only use spectral information. Our work highlights the potential of incorporating a UAV\u2019s DEM in OBIA for benthic habitat mapping, a promising but still scarcely exploited asset.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14195017","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,10]],"date-time":"2022-10-10T03:07:28Z","timestamp":1665371248000},"page":"5017","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Integrating a UAV-Derived DEM in Object-Based Image Analysis Increases Habitat Classification Accuracy on Coral Reefs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4228-6989","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Brian O.","family":"Nieuwenhuis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8384-3019","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabio","family":"Marchese","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1969-9141","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco","family":"Casartelli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Sabino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3759-8945","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sancia E. T.","family":"van der Meij","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Marine Biodiversity Group, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Benzoni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"827","DOI":"10.1038\/nature02691","article-title":"Confronting the coral reef crisis","volume":"429","author":"Bellwood","year":"2004","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"373","DOI":"10.1038\/nature21707","article-title":"Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals","volume":"543","author":"Hughes","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"257","DOI":"10.3354\/meps12732","article-title":"A decline in bleaching suggests that depth can provide a refuge from global warming in most coral taxa","volume":"603","author":"Baird","year":"2018","journal-title":"Mar. 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